Coastal Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise: A Preliminary Database for the U.S. Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico Coasts

Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Metadata:

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Identification_Information:

Citation:

Citation_Information:

Originator: Erika S. Hammar-Klose and E. Robert Thieler

Publication_Date: 2001

Title: Coastal Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise: A Preliminary Database for the U.S. Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico Coasts

Edition:

Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: GIS data files

Series_Information:

Series_Name: Digital Data Series

Issue_Identification: DDS-68

Publication_Information:

Publication_Place: Woods Hole, Massachusetts

Publisher: U.S. Geological Survey

Other_Citation_Details:

Online_Linkage: http://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds68/

Description:

Abstract:

Coastal Changes Due to Sea-Level Rise: One of the most important applied problems in coastal geology today is determining the physical response of the coastline to sea-level rise. Predicting shoreline retreat, beach loss, cliff retreat, and land loss rates is critical to planning coastal zone management strategies and assessing biological impacts due to habitat change or destruction. Presently, long-term (>50 years) coastal planning and decision-making has been done piecemeal, if at all, for the nation's shoreline (National Research Council, 1990; 1995). Consequently, facilities are being located and entire communities are being developed without adequate consideration of the potential costs of protecting or relocating them from sea-level rise related erosion, flooding and storm damage. Recent estimates of future sea-level rise based on climate modeling (Wigley and Raper, 1992) suggest an increase in global eustatic sea-level of between 15 and 95 cm by 2100, with a "best estimate" of 50 cm (IPCC, 1995). This is more than double the rate of eustatic rise for the past century (Douglas, 1997; Peltier and Jiang, 1997). The prediction of coastal evolution is not straightforward. There is no standard methodology, and even the kinds of data required to make such predictions are the subject of much scientific debate. A number of predictive approaches have been used (National Research Council, 1990), including: 1. extrapolation of historical data (for example, coastal erosion rates); 2. static inundation modeling; 3. application of a simple geometric model (for example, the Bruun Rule); 4. application of a sediment dynamics/budget model; or 5. Monte Carlo (probabilistic) simulation based on parameterized physical forcing variables. Each of these approaches, however, has its shortcomings or can be shown to be invalid for certain applications (National Research Council, 1990). Similarly, the types of input data required vary widely, and for a given approach (for example, sediment budget), existing data may be indeterminate or may simply not exist (Klein and Nicholls, 1999). Furthermore, human manipulation of the coast in the form of beach nourishment, construction of seawalls, groins, and jetties, as well as coastal development itself, may dictate Federal, State and local priorities for coastal management without proper regard for geologic processes. Thus, the long-term decision to renourish or otherwise engineer a coastline may be the primary determining factor in how that coastal segment evolves. Variables Affecting Coastal Vulnerability: We use here a fairly simple classification of the relative vulnerability of different U.S. coastal environments to future rises in sea-level. This approach combines the coastal system's susceptibility to change with its natural ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions, and yields a relative measure of the system's natural vulnerability to the effects of sea-level rise (Klein and Nicholls, 1999). The vulnerability classification is based upon the relative contributions and interactions of six variables: 1. Tidal range, which contributes to inundation hazards. 2. Wave height, which is linked to inundation hazards. 3. Coastal slope (steepness or flatness of the coastal region), which is linked to the susceptibility of a coast to inundation by flooding and to the rapidity of shoreline retreat. 4. Shoreline erosion rates, which indicate how the given section of shoreline has been eroding. 5. Geomorphology, which indicates the relative erodibility of a given section of shoreline. 6. Historical rates of relative sea-level rise, which correspond to how the global (eustatic) sea-level rise and local tectonic processes (land motion such as uplift or subsidence) have affected a section of shoreline. The input data for this database of coastal vulnerability have been assembled using the original, and sometimes variable, horizontal resolution, which then was resampled to a 3-minute grid cell. A data set for each risk variable is then linked to each grid point. For mapping purposes, data stored in the 3-minute grid is transferred to a 1:2,000,000 vector shoreline with each segment of shoreline lying within a single grid cell. [Summary provided by the USGS.]

Purpose:

Not Available

Supplemental_Information:

REFERENCE: Douglas, B.C., 1997, Global sea rise; a redetermination. Surveys in Geophysics, v.18, p. 279-292.

Supplemental_Information:

REFERENCE: IPCC, 1995, IPCC Second Assessment - Climate Change 1995: A Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,IPCC, Geneva,Switzerland,64 p.

Supplemental_Information:

REFERENCE: Klein, R, and Nicholls, R, 1999, Assessment of Coastal Vulnerability to Climate Change. Ambio, 28 (2):182-187

Supplemental_Information:

REFERENCE: National Research Council, 1990, Managing Coastal Erosion. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 163p.

Supplemental_Information:

REFERENCE: National Research Council, 1995, Beach Nourishment and Protection. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 334p.

Supplemental_Information:

REFERENCE: Peltier, W.R., and Jiang, X., 1997. Mantle viscosity, glacial isostatic adjustment and the eustatic level of the sea: Surveys in Geophysics, v.18, p. 239-277.

Supplemental_Information:

REFERENCE: Thieler, E.R., and Hammar-Klose, E.S., 1999. National Assessment of Coastal Vulnerability to Future Sea-Level Rise: Preliminary Results for the U.S. Atlantic Coast. U.S. Geological Survey, Open-File Report 99-593, 1 sheet. [Also published as PDF files on this CD-ROM.]

Supplemental_Information:

REFERENCE: Thieler, E.R., and Hammar-Klose, E.S., 2000a. National Assessment of Coastal Vulnerability to Future Sea-Level Rise: Preliminary Results for the U.S. Pacific Coast. U.S. Geological Survey, Open-File Report 00-178, 1 sheet. [Also published as PDF files on this CD-ROM.]

Supplemental_Information:

REFERENCE: Thieler, E.R., and Hammar-Klose, E.S., 2000b. National Assessment of Coastal Vulnerability to Future Sea-Level Rise: Preliminary Results for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico Coast. U.S. Geological Survey, Open-File Report 00-179, 1 sheet.[Also published as PDF files on this CD-ROM.]

Supplemental_Information:

REFERENCE: Wigley, T. M. L., and Raper, S. C. B. 1992, Implications for climate and sea level of revised IPCC emission scenarios. Nature, v.357, p. 293-300.

Status:

Progress: Complete

Maintenance_and_Update_Frequency: As needed

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South_Bounding_Coordinate: 24.5485

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Keywords:

Theme:

Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: GCMD SCIENCE PARAMETERS

Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: GCMD PLATFORM

Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: ANCILLARY KEYWORDS

Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: ISO TOPIC CATEGORY

Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: DATA SET LANGUAGE

Theme_Keyword: EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS > BEACHES

Theme_Keyword: EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > COASTAL PROCESSES > BARRIER ISLANDS

Theme_Keyword: EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > COASTAL PROCESSES > BEACHES

Theme_Keyword: EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > COASTAL PROCESSES > COASTAL ELEVATION

Theme_Keyword: EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > COASTAL PROCESSES > EROSION

Theme_Keyword: EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > COASTAL PROCESSES > SEA LEVEL RISE

Theme_Keyword: EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > COASTAL PROCESSES > SEA SURFACE HEIGHT

Theme_Keyword: EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > COASTAL PROCESSES > SEDIMENT TRANSPORT

Theme_Keyword: EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > COASTAL PROCESSES > SEDIMENTATION

Theme_Keyword: EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > COASTAL PROCESSES > SHORELINE DISPLACEMENT

Theme_Keyword: EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > COASTAL PROCESSES > SHORELINES

Theme_Keyword: EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > COASTAL PROCESSES > TIDAL HEIGHT

Theme_Keyword: EARTH SCIENCE > HUMAN DIMENSIONS > ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE/MANAGEMENT > ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENTS > COASTAL VULNERABILITY

Theme_Keyword: EARTH SCIENCE > HUMAN DIMENSIONS > SOCIAL BEHAVIOR > VULNERABILITY LEVELS/INDEX

Theme_Keyword: FIELD INVESTIGATION

Theme_Keyword: Gis

Theme_Keyword: Geographic Information Systems

Theme_Keyword: Cvi

Theme_Keyword: Coastal Vulnerability Index

Theme_Keyword: Shoreline Change

Theme_Keyword: Seashore

Theme_Keyword: Coastal Evolution

Theme_Keyword: BIOTA

Theme_Keyword: ELEVATION

Theme_Keyword: ENVIRONMENT

Theme_Keyword: OCEANS

Theme_Keyword: ENGLISH

Place:

Place_Keyword_Thesaurus: GCMD

Place_Keyword: CONTINENT > NORTH AMERICA > UNITED STATES OF AMERICA > U.S. ATLANTIC

Place_Keyword: CONTINENT > NORTH AMERICA > UNITED STATES OF AMERICA > PACIFIC COAST

Place_Keyword: CONTINENT > NORTH AMERICA > UNITED STATES OF AMERICA > GULF OF MEXICO COAST

Access_Constraints: Not Available

Use_Constraints:

Not Available

Point_of_Contact:

Contact_Information:

Contact_Person_Primary:

Contact_Person: ERIKA S. HAMMAR-KLOSE

Contact_Person_Primary:

Contact_Person: E. ROBERT THIELER

Contact_Position: TECHNICAL CONTACT

Contact_Position: TECHNICAL CONTACT

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Address_Type: Mailing and Physical Address

Address: U.S. Geological Survey

Address: 384 Woods Hole Road

City: Woods Hole

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Postal_Code: 02543

Country: USA

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Postal_Code: 02543

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Contact_Voice_Telephone: 508-457-2259

Contact_Voice_Telephone: 508-457-2259

Contact_Voice_Telephone: 508-548-8700

Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 508-548-8700

Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: ehammark@usgs.gov

Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: rthieler@usgs.gov

Data_Quality_Information:

Attribute_Accuracy:

Attribute_Accuracy_Report:

Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in this report, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference therein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof.

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Contact_Voice_Telephone: 1-888-275-8747

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Contact_Voice_Telephone: (703) 648-6533

Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: (703) 648-6252

Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: pschweitzer@usgs.gov

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GIS data files for the Coastal Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise: A Preliminary Database for the U.S. Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico Coasts.

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FGDC metadata records for Coastal Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise: A Preliminary Database for the U.S. Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico Coasts.

Fees: No Fees

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Metadata_Review_Date: 20121102

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